[URPE] heterodox economics newsletter

[Lee, Frederic]

Heterodox Economics Newsletter-20

http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm

Issue-20, December 5, 2005

>From the Editor

 

I have just read a series of articles that evaluated economics research in Europe. The articles emerged from a project to rank economics departments throughout Europe undertaken by the European Economic Association. The Council of the EEA took the view that the project was important because of the "poor governance structures and inappropriate incentives that still characterized so many European universities. The results [of the project] should help all those attempting to evaluate and develop research capacity, including officials in charge of overseeing and funding universities, and university officers trying to assess the quality of their economic departments (p. 1240)." 

The grounds for ranking departments were publications in neoclassical core journals. In fact one of the studies in the project stated that a European economist that did not have the equivalent of one AER paper with a single coauthor over a ten-year period was not qualified to supervise a Ph.D. student because he/she lacked a certain level of intellectual prowess. Since publications in the JPKE, JEI, ROSE, RRPE, ROPE, CJE, C&C, FE, Metroeconomica, any history of economic thought journal, and any other heterodox journal did not count at all, perhaps many if not most of the members of EAEPE, AHE, and CSE, and other heterodox economists in Europe (and in the United States as well) are not really qualified to supervise PhD students, at least in the eyes of their neoclassical colleagues! 

In any case, a ranking of European economic departments emerged from the project that ensured that only neoclassical departments are ranked and ranked highly. Since European funding officials use these rankings when making funding decisions because these are the only rankings they have, not publishing in core neoclassical journals is detrimental to heterodox European economists and their departments. 

More generally, there have been very many ranking studies of economic journals and departments in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere and they generally are all based on publications in neoclassical core journals and hence result in pro-bias ranking of neoclassical departments; and these rankings have been used to cleanse economic departments of heterodox economists. In this context, it is surprising that heterodox economic associations, such as EAEPE, URPE, AFEE, ASE, AHE, ASHE, and CSE, have not sponsored ranking projects, since the issue of ranking journals and departments that is the single biggest threat facing heterodox economists in Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Perhaps heterodox economists could energize their associations to do something pro-active such as promoting a cooperative project on ranking with other heterodox associations and perhaps with heterodox economic journals. To do nothing is to let mainstream economics dominate and eliminate heterodox economics. 

Fred Lee 

Neary, J. P., Mirrlees, J. A., and Tirole, J. 2003. "Evaluating Economic Research in Europe: An Introduction." Journal of the European Economic Association 1.6 (December): 1239 - 1249.


 


In this issue:


- Call for Papers <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Call_for_Papers#Call_for_Papers> 

          - Empire and Beyond Conference, University of Leeds, UK
          - EACES 9th Bi-annual Conference
          - How Class Works- 2006
          - Food and History: Health, Culture, Tourism and Identity
          - Reclaiming the Economy: the Role of Cooperative Enterprise, Ownership and Control
          - One-day Conference- Retail Trading in Britain
          - Feminist Economics
          

  - Conferences, Seminars and Lectures <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Conferences,_Seminars_and_Lectures#Conferences,_Seminars_and_Lectures> 

           - URPE at the ASSA in Boston
           - Occasional Seminar in the History and Philosophy of Economics
           - Fourth Australian Society of Heterodox Economists Conference
           - Seminar on the History of Postwar Social Science
           - International Conference on Institutional, Social & Radical Economics

- Job Postings for Heterodox Economists <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Job_Postings_for_Heterodox_Economists#Job_Postings_for_Heterodox_Economists> 

           - Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
           - University of Manitoba
           - Florida International University
           - The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
           - Reader/Professor in Europe and Globalisation
           - Senior Economist / The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) / Washington, DC, USA.
          - London School of Economics- Development Studies Institute (DESTIN)
           

- Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Heterodox_Conference_Papers_and_Reports_and_Articles#Heterodox_Conference_Papers_and_Reports_and_Articles> 

           - Smith vs.Darwin- Jamie Galbraith
           

- Heterodox Journals and Newsletters <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Heterodox_Conference_Papers_and_Reports_and_Articles#Heterodox_Conference_Papers_and_Reports_and_Articles> 

           - European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
           - Econ Journal Watch
           - La Lettre de la Régulation n°53 Septembre 2005 est parue.
           - INTERVENTION. Journal of Economics
           - Global Footprint Network Newsletter
           - The Talking Economics Bulletin- www.talkingeconomics.co.uk
           - Friends of Business History
          
- Heterodox Books and Book Series <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Heterodox Books and Book Series#Heterodox Books and Book Series>        

           - Eileen Stillwaggon / AIDS and the Ecology of Poverty
           - Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics
           - The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics
           - God and the Evil of Scarcity: Moral Foundations of Economic Agency by Albino Barrera (Providence College)
          

- <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#Heterodox Books and Book Series#Heterodox Books and Book Series> For Your Information <http://l.web.umkc.edu/leefs/htn20.htm#For_Your_Information#For_Your_Information> 

           - Environmental Policy Update #2: Formulating Effective Energy Policy
           - Revaluing Peasant Coffee Production: Organic and Fair Trade Markets in Mexico